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Summary

Description

Mid-later 19th century. 2-storey and attic, run of 4, 3-bay townhouses with shop to ground at No 163-167. Grey granite ashlar, rubble to rear. String course, blocking course. Piended dormers. Elliptical arched opening to pend to far left at No 61. Recessed entrance door to shop front with flanking plate glass windows with narrow timber columns and consoled timber fascia.

Variety of fenestration. Some 4 and 12-pane timber sash and case windows. Some non-traditional windows. Mansard roof to Nos 163-7.

Statement of Special Interest

This restrained Classical run of townhouses form an essential component of the planned streetscape of King Street. The classical style was to dominate the planned early nineteenth century city of Aberdeen and this row of houses is a good example, demonstrating an essential uniformity which is made more apparent in the row than the individual houses. The bold town planning which created Union Street and King Street was the defining gesture which allowed Aberdeen to develop from an contained medieval burgh to an rational modern city.

King Street developed after 1794, when a town council meeting asked the engineer Charles Abercrombie to find a way to connect the original steep, muddled Medieval streets of Aberdeen to the surrounding countryside. His plan was for two streets, one of which would run from Castlegate to the Denburn and the other which would run from the Castlegate to the North of the town. The latter was King Street. A competition for designs for this new street brought forward a design from Thomas Fletcher. This was to be a long classical façade, with a pedimented centrepiece and higher end blocks. This design was begun on the East side in 1805, with the creation of nos 8-10 (see separate listing). The idea of standard, uniform terraces, however, was abandoned when negotiations had to be entered into with owners regarding the length of the frontages and the heights of the buildings. It was then decided to allow some variations between designs, whilst keeping to the essential classical style.

References

Bibliography

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